Mercury
by CeliaBlair24
Summary: And Mercury thinks, this must be the part where everything unravels. One-shot. Post Volume 5. Companion to Camellia


**Authors Note: This is a prequel to my story _Camellia._ It isn't exactly necessary to read both to understand either of them, though it would be much appreciated!**

 ** _始まり_**

"Cinder… she's dead isn't she?"

It is dusk, when first he asks, two full days after they'd left Mistral. The moon hangs broken high above him, cleaved from stone and ivory. Stars spread out like diamonds, glittering proudly, lightening the night sky. It is beautiful, truly. But it is also silent. So very silent.

The campfire cackles before him, the only noise filling the sullenness of everything. Smoke breaches through the darkness, rising high into the air. It wouldn't do them well to keep the flames lit, despite the towering trees and lack of villages, they would be spotted soon enough, the Mistralians were relentless, after all… oh, but it is so very quiet, so very dark. Mercury steels his resolve, gray orbs hard, brows knitted, wrinkling his forehead and making him appear older than he may ever be.

"We don't know for sure,"

Hazel says but does not add on, not truly. Instead he eyes him, lips set into a familiar grim line, his eyes hard as the ground beneath his feet. The words, unspoken as they were, ring heavy in the air then, left for Mercury's mind to assemble the pieces. Alone.

 _'Yes'_

 ** _疲労_**

They march on with no end in sight. Legs stiff and arms heavy, rest remains a dream not worth the chase, the bargain of freedom.

It has been four days.

Emerald remains mute to the world, green hair stringy, swaying limply with the wind. Her head rests on Hazel's broad shoulder, as it had all the days previous. The older man says it's likely she'll wake any moment now. Mercury doubts this.

"Where are we going?"

Hazel does not answer immediately, his focus on the jagged path before them. Stones and branches, leaves and old hunting traps, rock formations the size of beowolves and trees that reach for the sun. The heart of Anima, Mistral's wilderness was a challenge all on its own. The Grimm, the animals, the villagers that weren't so welcoming- they were all just a bonus.

"A friend,"

The man answers, finally. His words are a grunt, rough and strained, dry from a long day without water. Mercury would have offered him a drink, only their flasks had been empty for hours now. So he sighs instead, running a shaking hand through his tangled hair. Sweat and clumps of dirt, the smell of blood and tears, anxiety and adrenaline, they cling to his fingers when he pulls away.

"Can we rest?"

Mercury staggers, prosthetic legs creaking, protesting against fatigue, the stress of their long journey. Hazel pauses, back straight and his chin raised. Tension clings to the frayed ends of his coat, heavy and all-consuming. His answer then is obvious, though it upsets Mercury no less.

"We're almost there"

 _'No.'_

 ** _夢_**

He dreams, the very few times he is allowed to dream. When they come across the 'rest' bar in their endless cycle of 'escape'. It is always of half-remembered journeys, a sultry voice and unfulfilled promises. A time long laid to waste by the whims of reality.

"They are of the highest quality, the best Remnant has to offer"

Cinder's voice is assuring, firm. Sweet and suggestive. Seductive. A small smirk graces red-stained lips, and her amber eyes twinkle almost unnaturally. As always, Mercury finds himself entranced by this.

"Try standing. Here, give me your hand"

Her palm is soft against his own, dainty even. There's a strength however, hidden deep within. When Cinder tugs him forward, when she all but hauls him back onto his feet, Mercury is reminded of this.

"How does it feel?"

She inquires, glass heels clicking against the tiled floor as she circles around him. From afar he could almost make out the grin Emerald wears, red eyes glinting against the too-bright light. Watts stands beside her, tall and haughty as ever. Intelligent eyes never stray from his new appendages, curious, calculating. A chill works its way through his spine.

"Mercury?"

Cinder asks, a hand placed delicately atop his bare shoulder. He towers over her, the top of her head making it only up to his ear, yet… yet somehow he feels as if he were the prey. Somehow he feels as if it was she who towered over him, gracing him with too bright eyes and too sharp smiles.

"Well?'

"Perfect."

He says; nervously quick yet so very grateful. Mercury serves her his widest possible grin. Cinder trails a sharp-nailed finger over his collarbone then, her eyes never leaving his own. Looking for a lie, always looking for a lie. Everything is a test for her, this too. It's a test of acceptance, of loyalty. A test to assure her and her doubtful conscience.

"Great."

A tender smile and a softness to her amber eyes that turn them into liquid gold. His will lays pliant in her open hands.

"I'm glad"

 ** _悪夢_**

Emerald awakens screaming, her voice intermingled with roaring winds and the grumble of thunder. Lightning sizzles through the air, a spider-web of the deadliest design.

"Em?"

Hazel is silent beside her, bent and on his knees, his burly arms straining to hold Emerald down as she trashes against him. She screams still, tears pooling on the stone floor beneath, leaving salty tracks on her cheeks. Cinder's name is a constant on her lips, sorrowful, longing. Remorse drives her voice hoarse.

"Emerald!"

Metal legs hit the cave floor with a clank, perhaps bent, though Mercury pays no mind to that. Tenderly, he brushes a stray hair from Emerald's fluttering, glistening red eyes.

"Em, it's me. It's just me, Em. Merc. I'm here, I-I'm here"

Emerald wails on, his words having gone unheard. The storm brewing outside the cave walls hits a crescendo, winds wiping wildly, felling trees and any unfortunate person within its reach. The rain hits the dirt path with a newfound rage, splitting rock and tearing soil. The clouds don't cease to rumble as lightning flashes on, unrelenting. Desperate, Mercury turns to Hazel, the hulking mans' efforts to keep Emerald still failing spectacularly.

"Em?!"

Mercury calls out again, brushing her fingers, shaking her shoulders, wiping her tear streaked cheeks. Nothing happens. No matter what he does, what he says, nothing registers to the screaming girl.

Then the very earth beneath him groans, and the rain surges in through the cave's opening. The air is charged with electricity as the storm worsens, lightning strikes no longer slithering idly from cloud to cloud.

"Hazel?"

Mercury is desperate when he asks, his eyes wide, bleeding stress and heartache.

He swears he hears a crack when Emerald's head hits the cave floor. He keeps from looking, though. He keeps from looking until after Hazel has gotten her off the floor. She's slouched against the cave wall when he turns back to her, her chin on her chest and her breathing steady.

 _Quiet._

Outside, the storm slows, and the clouds recede.

Mercury is not surprised however, that though the lightning stops and the winds fade to nothing, the sky continues to cry.

Rain, for long days after, remains unceasing.

 ** _難しさ_**

"Hey,"

He receives no answer in response. Somehow, he's gotten used to this. Stretching worn metal legs, and rolling his stiff shoulders and back, Mercury graces his mint-haired teammate with a wry grin despite her silence. It's been like this for a while now, ever since the night she'd created the storm. The silence should have bothered him, really- he always hated not talking. Somehow, he just couldn't find it in him to care.

"Water's great out here,"

He goes on, as if she were listening, as if this was an actual conversation. He leans against the bark of the tree beside her, a barely repressed sigh hanging off the top of his lips. Emerald has her hands wrapped around her knees, her chin tucked low and her fingers trailing the glimmering surface of the clear, fresh-watered stream in front of her. She's in a daze, he'd guess. She's always in a daze these days.

"Hazel says it comes from the mountains, the ones we passed last week? I'm not so sure about it but, well, Hazel knows everything now so..."

And he trails off, voice lost to the sounds of the forest. Birds chirping, singing their songs in earnest. The brush of leaves under the occasional wisp of mountain air. Water trickling slowly over pebbles the size of his toes and eventually over rocks as sharp as Emerald's sickles. Mercury breathes deeply once, twice, several times. He breathes deeply and he repeats every time he loses the will in him to speak.

"He says we're almost there, you know"

And Emerald tilts her head, looking as if she'd listened just this once. He continues, hope blossoming in his chest. It's a treacherous feeling leeching onto his heart, warm as it felt to him. He knew what was coming, he knew, truly. He knew how she would turn away, knew how she would mumble and go on as if he'd said nothing at all. Oh, but she's been like this for so long now and he can't help it, the urge to simply grab whatever chance she could offer and go. So he tells her, ever so softly.

"Few more days on the road. Then, fresh baths, good food- no more foraging for crap and all that. We'll be safe again"

Slowly, he reaches out a hand. Slowly, he brushes his dirtied, calloused fingers against the pointed tip of her shoulder. She does not turn.

"Em? It's great news, right Em?"

He shuffles closer, not stopping until his hips brush against her balled toes. He reaches out to her again, spreading his arm out so he could properly wrap it around her shoulders. She doesn't react, doesn't say even one word.

"Em?"

He croaks, and he hates how miserable he actually sounds. Like a chalkboard being scratched right by his ear, and he hopes to whatever Gods exist that it doesn't stay. Doesn't mangle his vocal chords, and dry his throat enough to heave as he did.

He sighs when she say's nothing.

"She wouldn't want to see you like this,"

Mercury feels it just as it happens, the light trembling of her frame as her shoulders tense, as reality hits her with his words.

"Why?"

She grits out, the first word he'd wrangled out of her for the day. Blazing red eyes capture his own from beneath stringy green tresses, and like always, he greets it with his usual, triumphant smirk.

"There you are,"

 _'What took you so long?'_

He doesn't say as he watches her shoulders slump, mangled tension finally seeping out of her frame.

"Oh,"

She turns to him, glassy-eyed and thankful, the tiniest of smiles plastered onto her lips. All the thanks he would ever receive laid bare for him to see.

"I miss her"

She states a long while after, when the clouds turn the lightest shade of pink, and sunlight stops slinking through the treetops in streams. She runs her hand through the still clear stream, watching as small waves ripple through the soft current.

"I know,"

Mercury replies, arm still slung around her shoulder. And if he holds her to him just a little bit closer, Emerald whispers not a word of it.

"I know."

 ** _希望_**

The smell of rabbit meat sizzled above the campfire wafts through their small campsite almost tantalizingly. Weeks of running and hiding and pretending and finally, finally they were having for dinner something other than berries, leaves and boiled stream-water. Hazel mans the fire and the food, burly arms somehow gentle enough to turn the cooking meat without outright breaking the stick it was piked onto. Emerald, as has become habit, is seated right beside him, smiling for perhaps the longest time since Mistral. She's been so quiet of late, so withdrawn- the contentedness of her features now was more than enough to keep Mercury's heart soaring.

"Damn, that smells good"

Mercury grins, his stomach gurgling already, excited as he was. Well, excited and hungry.

"Merc!"

Emerald calls out, patting the dirt beside her as she beckoned him. He almost trips over himself when he makes it there.

"Eyes on your feet, not the food, Merc"

And Mercury almost doesn't mind the gentle teasing, if only because it's the closest thing to familiar he'd heard from her lips in weeks. But he is Mercury Black, and he is nothing if not an arrogant ass (and he admits that) so he preens as she rolls her eyes, lips crinkled into a mocking smile.

"If I did that, there'd be no food for me to anticipate, no food to for me eat!"

"True"

Emerald says simply, eyes twinkling in amusement. The expression is familiar, so very familiar from the days of bickering as they traveled between missions, and the nights of jokes and recollections as they fought to keep awake. It gave him hope, somehow. A sense of security that, even if their world had been pulled out from under them, they were still strong enough to pick up the pieces.

For the first time in a long while, Mercury doesn't doubt this.

 ** _新しい_**

They were being tracked.

It wasn't something they'd picked up very quickly- obviously, the person following them had been in the business for a long while- but they do eventually. It starts with a conspicuous rustle of the bushes on a windless day and, from there, it all escalates. Footprints of boots that were not theirs, the littlest string of yarn caught onto a waving tree branch that was dyed far too well to be old, muffled ghost-like mumbling in place of hooting owls and tweeting birds and crickets late into the night.

Hazel suggests they ignore them, that they let whoever was watching them go about as they please. 'No need to capture their attention,' he had said, running a shaking palm over a hairy arm. 'It's safer this way,' he'd told Mercury and Emerald both, gaze tearing into them with surprising ease. Neither of them made any complaint to that and, for a while, nothing had happened. No surprise attacks, no maniacal laughter or battle-ready taunts. Nothing at all.

But then, something, as always.

It happens while they're on the road again, a good two days journey from wherever the hell they were supposed to be. It starts with a claw like scratching against the forest floor, and the scuffling of what must have been combat booths. By the time all three of them were notified of this, the faintest clink of metal being unfolded clears through the perpetual silence of the pathway. With shoulders tensed and the faintest of gasps, they recognized it for what it was. A weapon drawn.

"Rainart"

A voice drawls, and gray orbs land immediately on very familiar red hair. His hair is matted, stringing in front of his eyes instead of spiked back like it always had been. There are tatters in his dirt-encrusted clothes, tears and bloodstains where once the fabric had been smoothly pressed till crease-free.

"Taurus"

Hazel grounds out, angered. With a gruff "Stay put", he pushes past both Emerald and Mercury, his footsteps as heavy-set as his shoulders.

"What do you want?"

Hazel asks, scowl etched deeply into his features. In place of an answer, Adam lets out a long, crazed laugh.

"What do I want? What do I _want_? Rainart, there's a lot of things that I **_want_** "

Bile surges up Mercury's throat then, almost as fast as anger coils around his muscles and bones and pushes for him to move. That voice, the way he had said it. A sneer pulls at his thin lips, draws his head into an almost fractured tilt.

"Take me to her"

He says- no, orders, as if orders were still his to make. His lips are tilted just so, softened, but still a frown that can so easily be pulled back into that same crazed sneer. His hands are everywhere, spread, then crossed, just shaking in their attempt at movement. There's a frenzied energy surrounding him that hadn't been there before, latching onto his skin and staying firmly put. The insanity, Mercury thinks, is just about brimming.

"Who?"

Emerald asks before Hazel can say 'No'. They both turn to her, frowns matching in their firmness. Then Adam screams.

"Salem! Salem, who else?!"

Mercury's eyes don't deceive him, he knows he'd seen Emerald flinch.

"Tau-"

"I have plans, great plans! I just- I need time! That cat-faunus wench took MY troops, turned them against me! I need to get them back!"

And Mercury thinks that had he not sounded so crazed, he'd have sounded almost pleading.

Hazel levels the faunus a stare, brutal and unforgiving. Though the cracked mask obscures his eyes, Mercury's sure Adam's staring right back at him.

"Take me to Salem."

And that's the most sane he'd sounded since he popped up out of nowhere.

Hazel growls.

"'The Goddess rages, and should she turn her eyes on you I will not be your defender!"

Emerald visibly pales at the smirk pulling at the bull faunus' lips.

"I never asked you to"

Hazel turns his back on him then, briskly walking away with barely a second glance. Adam follows after him, laughing softly to himself and that's all the cue the duo needs before they're tripping over themselves trying to catch up.

"Wait for us!'

Emerald screams, and for once, Mercury does not oppose this.

 ** _砕けた_**

It's fitting, Mercury thinks, how the last leg of their journey is so very noisy.

The air buzzes around him, caressing his unguarded arms with a breath that is steadily getting cooler as the days go on. The path they travel, obscured as it is from all sight, is relatively thick itself. Hazel says it's an old back road, a path dug out for when hordes of Grimm decided to make an appearance and the civilians needed a place to run. Small stones and upturned pebbles are imbedded in the recesses of the forest floor, and where their gray ends don't jut out for all to see, the pathway is covered in a fresh coat of colored leaves.

"Wrong."

Mercury looks up with a sigh, watching as Adam trounces beside Hazel, eyeing the map from over his broad shoulders. Though the Faunus' weapon is tucked neatly into its holster, Mercury can't help but feel the urge to run whenever he gets within an arm's reach of the man.

 _"He's unstable", Hazel had told Emerald and him both, when at last he'd gotten a chance to pull them aside. "Fight him if you need to, but don't engage if you don't." And when Mercury decided to remind the huntsman of his and Emerald's reputation... well. "The leader of the White Fang, he who usurped his predecessor against two young mercenaries," and Hazel had sighed, giving Mercury his best disapproving frown._ _"Unstable as he is, Adam is deadly."_

"What's wrong?"

Emerald asks from behind them, words sharp, ever suspicious. Adam's turns to stare at her, physically planting himself on the dirt pathway and putting a pause on their trek. Again.

"This is not the road I was shown. Not the way that human-"

"Her name is Cinder."

Emerald corrects, teeth bared and face a mask of pure fury. Her hand inches for the weapons tucked into her holster, and for a moment, Mercury is so sure she's going to draw them.

"I know."

Hazel cuts in, several steps ahead of them. He hasn't turned his head, and his fingers are still wrapped around the browning edges of their map.

"What do you mean you know?"

"I mean I know this is not the way to her lair. Don't fool yourself, boy. I've been working with the Goddess for decades before you've picked up your own weapons to bare"

Hazel continues walking, then, folding the map and tucking into the pocket of his pant pocket without pause.

"Then why?!"

Adam stalks ahead of them, thin lips taut and his hand wrapped along the hilt of his sword. Emerald is beside him, her fingers brushing against his own. When Mercury turns to look at her, when he turns to ask, her eyes are already on his.

"Listen"

She whispers, just as Rainart turns, his shoulders back and his chin jutted out.

"Children have no place in this war."

Adam laughs, but all Mercury can hear is the sound of his heart thumping painfully against his chest, his limps stuck, frozen.

"Is that so?"

The faunus asks, voice low, wickedly amused. Mercury gulps, inching away, almost bumping into Emerald who stays staring at the duo in front of them.

Hazel merely nods.

"Morals,"

Mercury hears him whisper, a breathless sigh chilling the air. Emeralds hand reaches out and clutches his own.

"What do you mean?"

Mercury asks, his partner's fingers tight, wound through his in a white knuckled grip.

"Cinder is dead."

Hazel says simply, as if it's all the answer he needs. Emerald trembles beside him, dry, cracking lips pulled into a bleeding frown.

"So?"

Adam smirks, hands beside him, fingers long since loosening their grip on his sword. Hazel remains quiet, watching as Emerald clasps onto the chains that bind her pain, as Mercury struggles to reign her and himself in.

" _SO?_ "

He pushes, grinds, jaw clenched, teeth set almost painfully.

"You should be dead, too"

Adam grins, heaving a laugh that's not quite there. Hazel tenses from beside him, burly arms spread, a frown hanging low on his lips, straining to meet his chin.

"Children have no place in this war"

He repeats, desperate almost, but they are all the wrong words. A different tempo, a lag in the run, a stutter in his crawl. They're all it takes for Mercury to run.

Metal legs creaking, bag slamming mercilessly against his already aching back, Mercury's breaths come in short puffs, his pulse racing and his heart set on hammering against his chest as he leaves. Emerald is panting beside him, knees weak and tripping from the speed of their retreat.

"Here"

Mercury grunts, pulling Emerald aside as soon as they pass a curve in the pathway. They hadn't gone too far, as far as Mercury could tell, they were less than a miles walk from where they had been. A pitiful few minutes of walking separating them from perpetual danger.

"Dammit!"

The assassin grits out, pushing his partner behind thickly trunked trees, bundled behind a boulder. It was as if a shield, almost. A fitting hide, just for them. Mercury bit back a sigh.

"M-Merc?"

She stammers, head ducked, hands clenched into fists. She's on her knees now, slumped and withdrawn. As she had been, as Mercury had fought for her not to be for what seemed like years since Mistral...

"I know,"

Is all he says, tattered gray tunic scratching against the roughed side of the rock as he slides onto the moistened forest floors, just beside her. Emerald lets out a short huff, breath stuttering in her throat as her fingers lumber through the dirt.

"On the run,"

She tells him, her hand finally finding his own. She gives it a light squeeze before simply letting go.

"Again"

Mercury finishes, turning to her with a small, sardonic smile.

"Always"

She whispers, tucking her chin against her knees as she curls her arms around herself. Mercury simply slumps against the rock, uncomfortable as it is.

"You think he'll find us?"

Emerald asks, voice slightly muffled by the fabric of her pants.

"Nah"

And the lie was obvious enough, but Emerald laughs anyway. Somehow, that makes it alright.

 _"Okay"_

 ** _つづく_**

 **A series of cuts following a long journey to no where. I am hoping to all hell I did not screw this up as badly as I think I have. Have I? Damn, I'm unsure.** **Like if you do, comment if you do or don't and til next time,**

 **Ciao!**

 **-Yorky**


End file.
